On July 4, 1984, Richard Petty picked up his 200th Cup Series win, and to this day, it is the mark that nobody else has been able to beat. The United States of America celebrated its 208th Independence Day, while Petty celebrated his 200th win, that too with the then President of the United States, Ronald Reagan in attendance.

Petty recently sat down to discuss the massive milestone in a conversation with Graham Bensinger on his podcast. There, he unravelled how the victory led him to enjoy KFC with the President of the US.

"The President's flying in," Petty said. "He's on the Air Force One. He says, "'Gentlemen, start your engines.' So we start the engines. About halfway through the race, he lands. President Reagan. That's the furthest thing from my mind because we're out there racing."

Following this, Petty revealed how he wanted to beat Cale Yarborough at any cost and win the 200th race, to make the occasion special forever, given the occasion.

"The president was up in a press box. So we go up and get to talk to the president in the press box… The drivers, their families, the crews and their families got to eat Kentucky Fried Chicken with the president of the United States on July the 4th on top of that," Petty further added in the In Depth With Graham Bensinger podcast.

Notably, Richard Petty started the 1984 Firecracker 400 race at the Daytona International Speedway from sixth place. He was driving the famous No. 43 Pontiac at the time.

Yarborough, who was the primary rival of Petty in the race, started from the pole. Petty passed Yarborough which was not something any car in that race could do. Cale, too, could've passed him, but he waited to do it on the final lap that never came.

In the last couple of laps, a caution came out, so the race was finished under that. Petty won the race, grabbed the prize money, and took home his 200th Cup Series victory 42 years ago.

Ronald Reagan, the first US President to be at a NASCAR race

NASCAR hosted 1421 Cup Series races since its inception in 1949 before a sitting President decided to be present at one of the races. It was Ronald Reagan, who finally arrived to witness the race and give command, as reported by Autoweek in 2022.

Before him, several Presidents and Presidential candidates hosted drivers, team owners, and media at White House functions, but it was Reagan who took it up a notch further.

Using a special phone and a video feed, the then President of the US commanded: "Gentlemen, start your engines."

The race took place on Wednesday, one of the rarest dates to host a NASCAR race. No other race was held on such a weekday until 2020.

Around 80,000 people attended the race to see the US President, and Richard Petty went on to experience one of the most memorable moments of his life.

You can read more on the Daytona Racing Digest!

Written by

Sabyasachi Biswas

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason